The Latest Word in the 3D Bioprinting

Building 3D Human Tissues and Organs

Tissue engineering has witnessed a new breakthrough made by researchers at Brown University. In fact, the device that was created using parts that cost less than $200, is possible to pick and place parts and create tissues from microtissues consisting of millions of living cells. With help of the nozzle the device selects and places cells in the appropriate places and has a pump to bring fluids where they are needed.

The device got a name BioP3, which means Pick, Place and Perfuse

Due to the processes in cells they need perfused nutrient fluids to keep working and as the BioP3 works with living cells, they connect in a natural way. At the moment the device is operated manually, though that is really inconvenient. Now a $1.4 million grant will help researchers to develop a way to automatize the process of picking and placing cells.

With successful experiments on the living tissues the researchers are planning to move to the experiments with living human organs. Today researchers have managed to create hexes made of 250,000 cells, though it is necessary to take into consideration that even the smallest organ of the body consists of billions of cells.

According to Jeffrey Morgan, professor of molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology at Brown University, the main issue lies in the number of cells, though with time it will be possible to handle that.

On the contrary to the 3D bio-printing that prints only one drop at a time, the BioP3 device works much faster as it uses pre-assembled living building parts. The whole new method is very promising as the researches only start to analyze the possibilities of the device.